A Maltese court ordered the sale of the yacht to secure funds to pay creditors, including the crew. Some of the Indian Empress’s senior crew have not left the vessel since it was abandoned and are owed up to $92,000 each in unpaid wages.

Danny McGowan, the international organiser of Nautilus, said: “We are glad that we were able to help our members in this way. It is so important that maritime professionals working onboard superyachts join Nautilus before they encounter this type of issue, as waiting until they have a problem normally means that it is too late.

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“If the shipowner had a relationship with Nautilus, we are sure that we could have resolved the issue without resorting to arresting and selling the vessel. Again, we issue our call to superyacht owners, managers and other potential strategic partners to work with us in order to try and prevent situations escalating as they did here.”

Mallya, the self-proclaimed “King of the Good Times”, was arrested in London last year over allegations he supported the Force India Formula One team with money-laundered cash.

Indian authorities are seeking his extradition to face trial in India. Mallya, 62, is on bail pending an extradition hearing scheduled to begin in April.